Three Japanese brands – Lexus, Toyota and Acura – took the top spots in this year’s survey, and seven of the top 10 brands are Japanese.

But three non-Japanese brands – Audi, Volvo and GMC – cracked the top 10. And the magazine announced Monday it’s not recommending that consumers buy 2014 models of the Honda Accord V6 and Nissan Altima sedans, two of Japan’s top sellers, because of poor reliability scores. Two other Japanese mainstays, the Toyota Camry and Toyota RAV4, won’t be recommended because they flunked a frontal crash test from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

That’s a blow that could impact sales. Consumer Reports’ recommendations are frequently cited among the top reasons people buy particular cars and trucks.

Yonkers, N.Y.-based Consumer Reports predicts the reliability of 2014 model year cars and trucks based on a survey of subscribers who own vehicles from current or prior model years. This year, the survey questioned the owners of 1.1 million vehicles.

Problems with infotainment systems, from frozen touch screens to poorly performing voice-operated navigation systems, were frequent complaints. Jake Fisher, Consumer Reports’ automotive testing director, said electronic problems may even be underreported, since some drivers find the systems so confusing they don’t use them. German cars tended to have the best infotainment systems.

The 2014 Subaru Forester got the top score for predicted reliability, but the magazine noted that the 2014 Forester had only been on sale for a few weeks in the spring when owners were surveyed, so there wasn’t much time for errors to crop up. The Subaru Legacy was the top-performing midsize car.

Electric cars and hybrids generally performed well, but the Ford C-Max Energi plug-in hybrid got the worst reliability scores. Ford and its luxury Lincoln brand were near the bottom of the rankings because of customer complaints about their glitch-prone touchscreen dashboard systems and lower-than-expected fuel economy numbers.

The key to reliability is a conservative approach to vehicle redesigns. The brands that do best, like Toyota and Honda, often use time-tested engines, transmissions and other parts from prior models in their newer cars, Fisher said. Automakers with new engines or other untested features in their new cars – like Ford or Cadillac – tend to do worse.

“When you redesign cars from the ground up, you’re going to expect those issues,” Fisher told The Associated Press.

Brands with many older models, like GMC and Volvo, also tend to do better.

Here are the top three models in each category, according to Consumer Reports:

Type of car

Model

Model

Model

SUBCOMPACT CARS

Honda Fit

Hyundai Accent

Mazda2

SMALL CARS

Scion xB

Dodge Dart

Subaru Impreza

MIDSIZE CARS

Subaru Legacy

Toyota Camry

Mazda6

COUPES

Mercedes-Benz E-Class

Infiniti G

Audi A5

LARGE CARS

Lexus ES

Acura TL

Toyota Avalon

SPORTS CARS

Porsche Boxster

BMW M3

BMW 1 Series

HYBRID/ELECTRIC CARS

Toyota Prius

Lexus ES 300h

Toyota Prius C

LUXURY SMALL CARS

Infiniti G37 (AWD)

Infiniti G37 (RWD)

Acura TSX (4-cylinder engine)

LUXURY SEDANS

Audi A6

Lexus LS

Audi A7

WAGONS

Mazda5

Toyota Venza

Audi Allroad

MINIVANS

Toyota Sienna (FWD)

Nissan Quest

Toyota Sienna (AWD)

SMALL SUVs

Subaru Forester (non-turbo)

Mitsubishi Outlander Sport

Toyota RAV4

MIDSIZE SUVs

Toyota 4Runner

Toyota Highlander (V6)

Toyota Highlander (4-cylinder engine)

LARGE SUVs

Toyota Sequoia

Chevrolet Tahoe

Chevrolet Yukon

LUXURY SMALL SUVs

BMW X1 (4-cylinder engine)

Infiniti EX

Audi Q5 (V6)

LUXURY SUVs

Lexus RX

Lexus RX hybrid

Audi Q7

SMALL PICKUPS

Honda Ridgeline

Nissan Frontier

Toyota Tacoma (4-cylinder, FWD)

LARGE PICKUPS

Toyota Tundra (V8, 2-wheel-drive)

Toyota Tundra (V8, 4-wheel-drive)

Ford F-150 (V6)

Here are the brand rankings, the number of spots the brand moved up or down from the previous year and the best-performing and worst-performing model in each brand. Porsche was not on last year’s Consumer Reports list because the magazine didn’t have enough data from readers.